Lack of mental strength showing at Arsenal after Everton dismantle them

Much like Arsenal this year, Yaya Sanogo grapples with Seamus Coleman and inadvertently fails.

The only reason that the scoreline remained 3-0 was because Everton, as incredible as they were, lack the kind of fire power that Manchester City, Chelsea and Liverpool possess. Make no mistake, Romelu Lukaku is a future superstar and Steven Naismith has proven his critics wrong with some incredible performances of late but if a little more were to come from Kevin Mirallas and Ross Barkley, Arsenal would be staring at another 5-0 or 6-0.

Yesterday, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain spoke about how dangerous their full-backs were and you’d probably think that the Arsenal players are speaking about it because they acknowledge it, but today, it seemed as if none of them were as prepared as they thought when it came to dealing with Leighton Baines and Seamus Coleman, who I think is one of the best right-backs in Europe.

Mikel Arteta shared so many similarities with the corner flag at Goodison Park, except for the fact that he doesn’t let the top of his body sway as much as the latter. He had an almost Tom Cleverley-esque performance with some very accurate passes to Thomas Vermaelen and Per Mertesacker. Mathieu Flamini hasn’t had the kind of influence on games as he had during the early parts of the season, it’s for the best that he faces a two-game ban; he needs to rethink his style and commitment on some parts of the field.

Up front, Olivier Giroud was very much himself. His link-up play works against ‘easier’ opposition but when it comes to playing a competitive team, he makes us all regret why we sold Yao Gervinho.

Lukas Podolski hasn’t lived up to the kind of expectations that many of the Arsenal fans had. His work rate while attacking is impressive but he doesn’t contribute as much as he can on the defensive side of things; couple that with the deployment of Nacho Monreal at left-back and you know why Roberto Martinez put Lukaku on the right.

I do agree that Arsenal have several first-team players out and that any club that lose those kinds of players will suffer but at this stage of the season, if not tactically and physically, mental strength plays a huge part in the way we play these kinds of games. Last year, under similar circumstances, Arsenal powered through many games winning them when most thought otherwise. The difference this year could either be down to the fact that the team have gotten over-reliant on the Ramseys and the Ozils that they expect them to consistently carry the team to victory or the fact that they under-estimate their opposition.

Mind you, last year, we didn’t have ‘superstars’ like we do this year. Ramsey was coming into form but he wasn’t as incredible as he was during the early parts of this season. There was no Mesut Ozil either and the team knew they were to play as one gelled unit to grind out results, and in the end, they did.

Tomas Rosicky and Bacary Sagna are the only ones in the team who actually show that desire to drive forward and win the game but are constantly let down by either tiring legs or tiring minds.

Arsenal can do so much better and they still have a chance to get into the Champions League but if they have to do it, they’ve got to show the kind of mental strength they showed last year. If they do and if Arsene Wenger can win us the FA Cup, he has a huge summer in terms of bringing in quality players and assisting the under-performers in finding new clubs.

All in all, Arsenal have a mountain to climb in the next five games, it’s up to them to take the easy way or the hard way. Whatever they choose, they’ve still got our support. Come on you Gunners!